Lead Frontend Developer

Job Title: Lead Frontend Engineer

Level: L5
Location: Islamabad, Pakistan (On-site)

At SkyLabs AI Inc., we are at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution. As a US-headquartered company, we conduct applied research on AI for intelligent reasoning. We specialize in complex neurosymbolic AI to solve intricate problems within software engineering. Our team is composed of world-class researchers and engineers dedicated to building the platforms and intelligent agents that will power the next generation of software. If you are passionate about building truly intelligent systems and want to make a lasting impact, join us.

We are seeking an exceptional Lead Frontend Engineer to own the technical direction and development of our user-facing products, including our core IDE plugin. This role is a unique blend of high-level frontend architecture, AI-native UX design, and deep collaboration with our AI and C++ tooling teams.

You will be responsible for leading the design of a high-performance, cross-IDE frontend that allows developers to interact with our AI agents. This includes building UIs for streaming agent thoughts, visualizing complex code changes, and interacting with debuggers and profilers. The ideal candidate is a seasoned frontend leader who has shipped production software, understands the C++ developer, and is excited to build the next generation of AI-powered developer tools.

• Lead Frontend Architecture: Architect and lead the development of our core IDE plugin (initially for VS Code) and design an abstraction layer to support other IDEs (e.g., CLion).

• Build AI-Native UIs: Design and build complex, high-performance interfaces for interacting with AI agents, including streaming log viewers, rich diff visualizers, and interactive prompt editors.

• Integrate Developer Tools: Create UI components that can parse, display, and interact with C++ tooling, such as debugger state (call stacks, variables), profiler output (flame graphs), and build logs.

• Collaborate & Define APIs: Work closely with AI and backend engineers to define robust API contracts (gRPC/REST) for agent communication, telemetry, and authentication.

• Mentor & Guide: Lead and mentor a team of frontend engineers, setting the standard for code quality, testing, and development velocity.

• Implement Telemetry: Design and implement privacy-conscious telemetry to capture user interactions and agent performance data to create feedback loops for our models.

• Own the Product Lifecycle: Drive the frontend technical design, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration from concept to production.

• Expert in Frontend Development: Mastery of modern frontend technologies (e.g., React, TypeScript, Vue) and complex application state management.

• Working Knowledge/Experience of C++: Familiarity with the C++ development lifecycle, build systems (CMake), and debugging process. This is essential for designing a UI that genuinely helps C++ developers.

• Proven Leadership Qualities: Experience leading a frontend team, setting technical direction, mentoring junior developers, and collaborating with backend, AI, and product teams.

• Have Built and Shipped Products: A strong portfolio of shipped products, demonstrating an ability to take a complex idea from concept to production. Ideally, this includes experience in the AI or developer tools domain.

1. IDE Plugin & Desktop Architecture

• IDE Extension Development: Direct experience building plugins for major IDEs, especially VS Code (TypeScript/JavaScript). Familiarity with the plugin architecture for JetBrains CLion (Java/Kotlin) or Visual Studio (C#/.NET) is a major asset.

• Cross-IDE Abstraction: Proven ability to design and build frontend abstraction layers that allow a core UI to be "ported" or adapted to different IDE plugin frameworks without a full rewrite.

• Language Server Protocol (LSP): Experience integrating with or implementing clients for the Language Server Protocol to handle features like symbol search, definitions, and references.

• High-Performance UI: Building responsive, low-latency interfaces that can handle large files and real-time data streams (like build logs or agent thoughts) without degrading the IDE's performance.

2. Complex AI & Developer Tool UX

• AI-Native Interfaces: Designing and building UIs specifically for interacting with AI agents. This includes:

• Streaming agent responses and "chain of thought" logs.

• Visualizing and applying "surgical" code changes (e.g., rich diff viewers, accept/reject buttons).

• Creating chat and prompt interfaces for the agentic mode.

• Developer Tool Integration: Creating the frontend for C++ specific tooling. This means building UI components that can parse, display, and interact with:

• Debugger state (call stacks, variables, breakpoints).

• Profiler output (flame graphs, performance reports).

• Build System logs and errors.

• Data Visualization: Experience with data visualization libraries (like D3.js, react-flow, or similar) to build the interactive Formal Blueprint views, including system diagrams, file trees, and spec viewers.

3. Leadership & Product Engineering

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: A strong history of working closely with AI/ML engineers to understand model capabilities and limitations, and with backend engineers to define API contracts (for ACP/MCP support, auth, etc.).

• Client-Side Telemetry: Experience implementing robust, privacy-conscious telemetry within a frontend application to capture user interactions and agent performance data for training.

• Full Product Lifecycle: Leading the frontend technical design, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration of a user-facing product.

• Authentication & User Management: Integrating frontend clients with backend authentication services, managing user sessions, and handling role-based access to features.

You are a builder at heart, driven by curiosity and a desire to solve hard problems. You don't wait for instructions; you identify opportunities and seize them. You are comfortable with ambiguity and thrive in a fast-paced, in-depth environment where you are encouraged to experiment and push boundaries. You are a clear communicator who can articulate complex technical concepts and work collaboratively to achieve ambitious goals.

• Competitive salary in USD

• Comprehensive health insurance

• Relocation allowance (if you're moving to Islamabad)

• Monthly team events and offsites

• A beautiful, collaborative office space

• Work alongside world-class AI researchers and engineers